In this project, we centered our interest in the analysis of trophic association between herbivore insects and plants they feed upon, and to this end we used a single method, fast and objective, precisely based on the characterization of DNA from the insect and from plant remains it fed upon and still in its gut.

Our main focus is on the Chrysomelidae, herbivore beetles very diverse in the tropics, with species adapted to feed on almost every group of plants, either with a strict specialization or as generalists. We sampled as many leaf beetles as possible in every locality with dry forest; the animals were immediately sacrificed in the field drowning them in absolute ethanol. Alcohol preserves the DNA present in the insect, its own DNA and DNA from other sources, for later analysis in the laboratory.